I am new to phpbb and also a novice when it comes to programming. I intend to own a youth forum with this structure:

1. I will like to display selected topics on the front page of the forum. Please see http://www.nairaland.com2. I also will like to have advert placement on the top, left and right columns of these selected threads on the homepage

Is there a theme/template you can recommend for me please. Or can I have somebody inhouse to do it for me.

Could you please provide a link to your website at the moment? And which selected topics do you want to have - ie. the last couple posted on the entire forum, the last ones posted from a certain area of the forum, etc?

It's PHP and MySQL based, and in that respect similar to phpBB but it is otherwise alien to us ... a thing called Simple Machines Forum. In the last ten minutes the site had 1170 guests and 338 registered users. Those are numbers that our little community would tremble at. Still, I dare say someone here (probably battye himself) will have a suggestion or two for you.

It's PHP and MySQL based, and in that respect similar to phpBB but it is otherwise alien to us ... a thing called Simple Machines Forum. In the last ten minutes the site had 1170 guests and 338 registered users. Those are numbers that our little community would tremble at. Still, I dare say someone here (probably battye himself) will have a suggestion or two for you.

I thought the same thing at first Rat, but I don't think that is spora's forum - I think spora wants their forum to look like nairaland.

What I mean is that instead of last post or latest topic or whatever, I just want to display any topic that is of interest on the homepage. For instance, if someone post any news and/or article that I found to be of relevance and want to give prominence, I can just bring it out and have it displayed on the frontpage.

I hope to use external page, precisely joomla for my external home page.